Ham Radio: a Blog Returns and Some Goals

Sort of a blah weekend of mowing grass and doing chores.  Did get in one bike ride, but it was only CX'ing the seawall.  Didn't really participate in the Mississippi QSO party, it was just too contest-a-riffic for me at the moment.  Did get myself caught up and recharged for this week however, and that was worthwhile.

On to the main points of this post.  M0JCQ's Ham Blog has a new post up, the first one in some months.  The guy's been off Doing Adventure and brought back pictures.  From Everest for example, that's pretty cool.  Then he doubles down and gives a list of ham radio goals for 2018.  (just go hit the link if you want to see)  Naturally this comes around to "What the hell am I doing on the radio in 2018?"  So... here we go.

• Lighten up the QRP rig a shade more.  Perhaps a smaller LiFePO4 battery.
• Get back out on the trail and do some more overnight/multi-day camping & radio trips.  That will have to wait for cooler, reptile-free weather next fall.
• Get one daytime QRP/mountain bike portable trip in before the real heat starts.  It'll have to be within the next month.  This almost happened yesterday, but the trails were just too wet to justify the drive.
• Get back on 100 watt/QRO day hiking.  I mean, I've already got the radio for it.  Will probably just use the Osprey 50 to haul all 15+ pounds around, though I could use a new day pack for this and a variety of other reasons.
• Get around to having the blown finals in the FT-450D fixed – or maybe relegate it to SWLing.
• Build up a 440 Moxon antenna and see if I can get into the SARNET-FL Apalachicola repeater more reliably.  Will start out with the HT initially, but it may take more watts from the 857 before this is all up and truly working reliably.  It's one step at a time.
• Build up that BitX 40 that's been staring me in the face for a year.
• Finally, there's the eternal goal of practical SSTV from home.  I did get quite a ways with it last year (evidence, and more evidence) but finally ran out of gas about time hurricane season ramped up.  Mostly it's going to come down to sorting out a marginally documented piece of freeware.

Well that's a rag-bag of small projects that could all happen in a one week staycation, should I ever get around to it.  Most likely though, I'll wander into next fall with perhaps half them accomplished.  Getting that Easy Digi interface up and functioning was a huge step forward and a great start for 2018.  Throw in two successful overnighters, and it's looking pretty good.